Night Photoshoot 1: Todd Hido
I tried this photoshoot 3 different times. I tried both at night and early morning with varying results. None are particularly sharp or without grain and most were too blurry to use.
Outcomes:
I think the best were these 5:
For my photoshoot I would like to look more at female empowerment and the future of women’s rights and how they are being portrayed in more positive way as times continue. This photoshoot will show a more positive light on women and how times have evolved to empower them instead of restrict them to certain values and opinions. This photoshoot will be created to show woman who are capable and headstrong with knowledge and intelligence.
For this photoshoot, I will take pictures in a house which is an out of school photoshoot to display women with power and almost being over-dramatic about their posing and expressions. Another interesting component of this photoshoot, is that these women will be young adults of the age of 18, instead of a women ages e.g. 30, who has lived a life to develop into who she is. Due to these girls’ age, it creates a meaning that it does not depend on age, when a girl can be powerful and self-confident. I would like to focus on posing and how, the way you come across, demonstrates your power and confidence.
Helmut Newton References.
My images are being produced In response to Helmut Newton’s work, however, my images will display similar signifiers in his work such as the topics of dominance, confidence and power. Although Newton’s work is controversial for being either critical of women or empowering women, I would like to explore different aspects of his work, as some of his images are seen to be empowering, and some more disparaging. The conflict of emotions towards his work argue whether his images are empowering the woman as his work surrounds themes such as power and control, instead of submission and manipulation. In my photoshoot, I am going to be interpreting Helmut Newton’s work surrounding themes of dominance control and power, but my work will be highlighting the difference in empowerment and objectification. I will do this by having a similar style of photographs, but have my models be glamorous and celebrated not glamourous and subordinate.
Here are some examples of images I would like to include in my photoshoot outside of school in response to his work.
These photos are perfect representations of images I would like to produce in my own photoshoot. I want my models to look elegant and posed in similar situations to this. I am choosing this style of photos out of his different genres as I feel these images display the classy and glamorous yet voyeuristic style of images where the women are dressed up. I want my models to pose in a confident manner to show they are self-aware and strong, contrasting with stereotypical portrayals of women.
My Photoshoot:
I would like my 3/4 models to initially be dressed in long black dresses with red lipstick and long straight hair. This is to demonstrate the stereotypical powerful woman during this time period. However, I would also like to experiment with different outfits and hairstyle and makeup in order to replicate different images and create an impression of fashion photography in response to Helmut Newton’s work. I would like to initially start with black dresses as many of his photos feature this type of outfit. However, I am attempting to provide similar extravagant clothing. Here are some outfit ideas I would like to include in my photographs. Pieces such as long dresses, black trousers, blazers, heels, tights and coats, all with darker tones I think will really boost my images to look more similar to his work.
Posing Ideas.
These poses give me ideas on how to show power, confidence and beauty. These are a wide range of things I would like to focus on in order to relate to the idealised view of a woman and how they are portrayed, vs how they really are. I really want to convey a message about how women are portrayed and how the line between glamour and class and objectification and humility is able to be hidden easily in the fashion world.
Photoshoot-My Favourite Images:
I chose to put these photographs into black and white in order to relate closer to Helmut Newton’s work. I feel like these fashion magazine inspired photographs are a good modern day representation of his work. I had 3 modes in different but similar outfits of long dark dresses and sunglasses. I feel like this was one of my more successful photoshoots which demonstrate an array of images relating to my chosen photographer’s work. The location of my photoshoot I feel played a key part in my photoshoot as the background included staircases, curtains, doors and fireplaces. I chose to include these features in order to create a grand and impressive backdrops for my shoot.
I feel these images are my best out of the 100 photographs I took. These images relate to Helmut Newton’s work as it demonstrates high contrast images with bold lighting. I feel this lighting incorporated with a black and white filter has heightened the quality and the sense of mystery and allure to my work. I also believe that these images revolve round a strong and powerful feminine energy of strength, which elevates the clothing promoted in a magazine as an audience will feel empowered and encouraged through self-assured and confident models. An impression of elegance, aggression, sass and glamour is a message I was attempting to share in my photoshoot as it opposes traditional depictions of female models in the fashion photography industry. I also wanted my models hair, makeup, accessories and outfits to be high fashion, quality and portray an expensive aesthetic. This is in order to give the impression that these are top fashion designer clothing which would be displayed in magazines such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Elle and GQ.
Top 5 Images In Colour:
These 5 Images are in colour as I think although having images in black and white are strong and detailed, the outfits and backgrounds create a striking effect on my images which I may also use in my final booklet. However, Helmut Newton’s images are predominantly displaying women in bold, high contrast lighting in striking outfits. I feel the coloured photos take away the ‘difference’ and ‘distinct’ effect and message for the viewer.
EDITING ANALYSIS.
Whilst editing my images, I have paid attention to Helmut Newton’s style of editing and made a multitude of different editing styles shades and colours. However, In the end I found a high contrast black and white is the perfect setting for these images. Whilst finding the correct filters and shades I also experimented with shades such as ‘cool shadows and warm highlights’, ‘flat and green‘, ‘red lift matte’ and ‘vintage instant’ out of the Adobe Lightroom filter presents of filters. I also focused on increasing the texture, whites, blacks and shadows in my black and white images to create a high contrast between black and white. But my coloured images I focused o lowering the highlight and blacks and increasing the contrast.
Comparisons.
I attempted to recreate some of Helmut Newton’s images by reinterpreting his model’s poses and body language. Such as legs crossed over, lying down on the floor and peering out into a keyhole. However, I like how my images differ to his images by the furniture and background setting being slightly different and more modern. The outfits are also more up-to-date and fashionable in the modern day world and could be potentially used in a modern day magazine, as opposed to a old-fashioned photoshoot from the 1960’s-70’s. To improve on this photoshoot, I would have liked to have done more outside images as many of Helmut Newton’s fashion images are recorded outside. I would also have liked to go to more inside locations with different styles and genres of rooms and interior design. I feel this variety of locations would add more interest and value to my shoot. I would also like to have experimented with more outfits instead of my models wearing the same outfits in virtually all photos. This would have created more of a fashion magazine vibe with all 3 models in different makeup, hair and outfits for different shots. I would have liked to have had better lighting inside. I could’ve done this by providing a ring light or a light source which would be move into different angles and perspectives for my images to have been of a higher quality. However, overall I believe this photo-shoot was successful as I have achieved images in inspiration to Helmut Newton with a fashion magazine style interpretation.
Literary sources: Go to this blog post here: Theory: Literary Sources and copy relevant key texts relating to the subject of your essay and list in alphabetical order in your bibliography. In addition, find your own key texts in relation to artists selected for in-depth analysis in your essay and list these too. These texts could be interviews with the artist, or reviews/ critique’s written by others. See useful online sites/ sources here .
Essay Question
possible-essay-questions-to-investigate
Some examples of Personal Study essays from previous students:
Essay Plan
Make a plan that lists what you are going to write about in each paragraph – essay structure
How have concepts of childhood, loss and memory been explored in the photo books of Yury Toropstov and Laia Abril?
In what wat is identity and autobiography expressed in the work of Chino Otsuka and Tom Hunter?
In what way does Justine Kurland and Michelle Sank explore youth and femininity through their work?
To what extend is autobiography explored in the work of Jim Goldberg and Jo Spence?
Wells L. (1998). ‘The Photographic Gaze’ in Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge.
Kelly, A. (1998). ‘Self Image: Personal is Political’ in Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge.
Jansen, C. (2017). Girl on Girl: Art and Photography in the Age of the Female Gaze. London: Laurence King Publishing
Goldberg, J. (5 `May 2005) A Completely True Work of Fiction: Jim Goldberg’s Raised By Wolves. Magnum Photos: (https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/art/jim-goldberg-raised-by-wolves/). [Accessed Date Accessed]
Goldberg, J. (2 June 2021). Fingerprint: Tracing the Roots of Jim Goldberg’s Raised by Wolves. Magnum Photos: (https://www.magnumphotos.com/theory-and-practice/fingerprint-tracing-roots-jim-goldbergs-raised-by-wolves/) [Accessed Date Accessed]
Bull, S. (2009), ‘Phototherapy: The Family Album and Beyond‘ in Photography. London: Routledge.
Kuhn, A. ‘Remembrance: The Child I Never Was’ in Wells, L. (ed) (2003) The Photography Reader. London: Routledge
Martin, R and Spence, J. (2002) ‘Photo-Therapy: Psychic Realism as a healing art’ in Well, L. The Photography Reader. London: Routledge.
Jo Spence Memorial Library. London: Birkbeck: University of London.
Dennett, T. (2008): Jo Spence’s camera therapy: personal therapeutic photography as a response to adversity European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling (Volume 11, 2009 – Issue 1: Phototheraphy and Therapeutic Photography)
Heath, C. (2017). Work, Politics, Survival, British Journal of Photography
Weiser, J. (2005) Remembering Jo Spence: A Brief Personal and Professional Memoir… PhotoTherapy Centre
Jansen, C. (2020) Is Photography An Effective Form of Therapy? Elephant
Dennett, T. (2013). ‘Jo Spence’s Family Album’ in Family Politics, Issue 20. Brighton: Photoworks
Essay writing: Here is a link to another blog post which will provide you with guideline about how to structure each paragraph in your essay.
Essay introduction (draft)
To what extend is autobiography explored in the work of Jim Goldberg and Jo Spence?
Opening quote: use something Goldberg or Spence has said from any of the key text in your bibliography
Autobiography, as a theme in contemporary art, allows artists to reflect on and question the intersection of personal experience with broader social, political, and cultural contexts. In the work of photographers Jim Goldberg and Jo Spence, autobiography is explored not merely as a form of self-reflection but as a tool for social critique and identity construction. While both artists engage deeply with their personal lives, their approaches diverge significantly in terms of methodology, subject matter, and intent. Goldberg’s work blends documentary photography with personal narrative, using text to reveal the intimate relationships between himself and his subjects, thus embedding his autobiography within a larger social commentary on class, power, and marginalization. On the other hand, Jo Spence’s autobiographical exploration is overt and personal, often focusing on her own body and health, particularly through her struggle with breast cancer. Spence uses photography as a means of self-representation and self-exploration, engaging in a performative act of reclaiming her identity in the face of illness and societal expectations. This essay will examine how Goldberg and Spence each explore autobiography in their work, considering the ways in which they both navigate the personal and the political, and how their approaches contribute to a broader conversation about the role of the self in art.
My area of study is into identity, mainly focusing on how you can present yourself differently to everyone and looking into the anxieties of a teenage girl, especially in my life.
I will be analysing Jim Goldberg and Jo spence in this essay, I am looking into them as they also do a lot on identity. Jim Goldberg mainly as a child, and jo spence into womanhood, I also like their creative aspects to their photography that I hope to also use. I will be responding to their work by making some similar photos which I will later use as a comparison, i will the respond to this essay question by first giving my introduction on them both, then having a paragraph each to how autobiography is especially explored in both their work, then maybe having paragraphs on similarities and differences and finish with a conclusion.
Essay Paragraph 1 (draft)
Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian.
The primary theme jotted down in a life writing is to give life and include autobiographical statements on photography works done by Jim Goldberg and Jo Spence and the general drift in photography and visual culture towards the personal narrative and subjective experience. During the 1970s and 1980s, the artists’ practices were largely identified with the postmodernists, who were always critiquing the aspect of objectivity and universal truth within the realm of art. Photographs as self testaments through Rich and Poor (Goldberg 1985) or through The Picture of Health? (Spence 1982-86) reveal photography as a medium to discuss identity, class, and the politics of representation. “I was politicized by my own experiences. I use photography as a means of exposing and dealing with the hidden politics of everyday life, including my own.” – Jo Spence. While both referring to the traditions of documentary photography and conceptual art, they interrogate the power relations in image-making, reminiscent of what theorists wrote about photography claiming neutrality and truth. This is because by integrating a handwritten text with the portrait, Goldberg found an interpretative space within which to situate both image and subject, while including genealogies of feminist critique and psychoanalysis in an autobiographical view, drawing a portrait of many critical experiences in the lives of these authors. “My work is a collaboration with the people I photograph. Their words, their voices, are as important as the image itself.” – Jim Goldberg. In other words, both artists, through their personal experiences, render the self an object of contestation, critique, and ultimately, alternative approaches to autobiographical writing in visual culture challenge the traditional narratives surrounding it. This personal-contextualization is what then situates their work in the line of a socially engaged art: in history, using methodologies adopted by historians and critics that value context and ideology over form.
To what extent have Anna Gaskell and Duane Michals explored narrative in their work.
“Trying to combine fiction, fact and my own personal mishmash of life into something new is how I make my work. . .. I try to insert a degree of mystery that ensures that the dots may not connect in the same way every time.”—Anna Gaskell, in NMWA’s See for Yourself card
Both Anna Gaskell and Duane Michal’s explore storytelling and narrative through the medium of photography. I intend to compare, analyse and explore the differing ways they both accomplish coherent and clear narrative through the use of aesthetically interesting images and sequences in order to better understand the art of storytelling. I have chosen Anna Gaskell as a primary focus because of her alternative and dynamic photography focusing on retelling darker and more uncomfortable sides of children’s stories, for example her re-telling of Alice in Wonderland. Her images are disturbing and beautiful on their own but combined tell chilling interpretations of recognizable childhood favourites. My interest in Duane Michals is similar as his work relies on a sequence of images, that appear inconspicuous but when put together create a sense of alienation and disequilibrium. He uses the philosophy that audiences will ‘see what they want to see’ (Michals year: page no? reference source using Harvard system) and believes that literal appearances are unimportant in comparison to the portrayal of the narrative he is trying to convey. This is important for me to understand to create a well-established re-interpretation of Jersey’s urban legends that is disturbing, beautiful and clear in its intentions.
To better understand the concepts of how narrative was explored historically I will investigate when people who first began using photography as an expression of the self rather than a scientific means of recording a moment in time. This leads me to tableaux photography – a style of photography where people are posed in a constructed environment in order to convey a pictorial narrative through a single image, in contrast to photojournalism and documentary photography that make use of series of images in telling stories. Tableaux photography often refers to fables, fairy tales, myths and real-life events as inspiration for recreation, and in this aspect Anna Gaskell draws strongly from the original tableaux photography in her own more modern interpretation. However, tableaux photography depends greatly on the interpretation of the viewer and is often very ambiguous and open-ended recreations of subjective themes. Its origin began with Pictorialism, developed first in the 1870’s. ‘the pictorial image aims to render the real as an ideal; composition should have an idea; meaning’. (author’s surname year: page no? reference source using Harvard system)
Early pictorialist photographers set off through international competitions, exhibitions and publications modelled after the art salon system, often using established painters among the judges. The pictorialist perspective was born in the late 1860s and remained extremely relevant through the first decade of the 20th century. Pictoralist photographers at the time aimed to use the camera as a tool in the same sense as a paintbrush or chisel could be used to convey artistic statements, it was their belief that the camera could be used in a similar manner.
Peter Henry Emerson who was born on the 13th of May 1856 and later died on the 12th May 1936 at 80 years old was a British writer and photographer. His photographs are considered to be early examples of promoting pictorialist sensibilities as an art form. He is renowned for taking beautiful photographs that displayed bucolic settings and more relevantly his disagreements with the photographic establishment about the purpose and meaning of photography. Emerson’s book Naturalistic Photography (1889) was incredibly influential in the last years of the 19th century. Its message reached American and European photographers who began to follow its principles and by organizing associations and exhibitions in effort to show that that photography was capable of producing beauty and expressiveness.
During this strive for photography’s conversion from classical and scientifically documentation to a valued art form, photographers experimented by manipulating images in darkrooms, scratching and marking prints in order to imitate the texture present in canvas paintings, creating blurred images on soft focus to create fuzzy images based on religious and spiritual subject matter, influenced by allegorical paintings. Allegory is a figurative representation of conveying subjective and symbolic figures, using underlying moral ,social ,religious themes and commentary’s, personifying abstract themes such a greed, sloth, charity and envy.
Duane Michals who is lovingly referred too as the father of conceptual photography revolutionised photography in the 1960s by separating himself from traditional documentary and fine art approaches by using innovative techniques that incorporate handwritten messages , poems and multiple frame sequences in order to covey his narrative or ‘story’ through images. ‘Michals manipulated the medium to communicate narratives'(1). Michals work frequently explore themes of identity, desire and the human experience through a subjective and conceptual lens. Michals takes the classic themes from what began as tableaux or pictorialist photography of religion and morality and pioneered his own form of telling individual and intellectual narratives, turning his back to established traditions of documentary and fine art photography, instead of falling into the shadow of respected masters of fine art photography Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson and the like. Michal’s creates sequences of multiple images to convey compelling and queried inducing visual stories. ‘ He has always considered himself to be a storyteller.'(2) Michals found himself inspired by the surrealist painter Rene Magritte who challenged viewers perceptions of reality with witty and thought provoking images, and in his like began experimenting with double or triple exposures in order to expand the meaning and interoperability of his subject.
When looking at Michals photography it is very important to consider that his images are typically created to be a singular image in a sequence of many, but when looking that the individually, it is clear to me he typically stylises his images as black and white photographs with high exposer and a wide lens. In this particular image Michals utilises butterfly lighting to create sharp idealistic lines across the face to accentuate the models features as ‘beautiful’ to contrast with a skeletal figure looming behind him, highlighted by the dramatic lighting and deeply contrasting shadows and highlights throughout the photograph. Duane Michals is thought to be ‘rejecting the notion of the “decisive movement,” the supremacy of the sensational singular image, and the glorification of the perfect print'(3) as he regularly aims to capture images mid motion or slightly ‘fuzzy’ in order to portray a moving and compelling narrative.
keeping this in mind when we begin to look at anna Gaskells work and influences we begin to see many similarities in active story telling, Gaskells photographs are often created to represent motion and action, using this similar idea of movement captured within the photograph, using awkward mid movement posing, in contrast with Michals work her photos are clear and in focus.
Gaskell is best known for her photographic series that she calls “elliptical narratives”, which are considerably similar to Cindy Shermans photography. Gaskell’s photographs are inspired by film and painting, rather than the typical conventions of photography in a similar fashion to Shermans photography
A series of photos that is intriguingly similar to Duane Michals photography is her series Turns Gravity where the images follow faceless youthful figures playing and exploring a woodland setting, this series of images is intriguingly ambiguous when compared to some of her other photo series that are clearly and intentionally inspired by childhood stories with dark and twisted underlying themes.
these subjective or ‘ambiguous’ themes are closely related to the interpretability recognised in pictorialism photography and Michals photo series’ she uses tight framing and dramatic staging to distort the figures features as well as a shocking colour scheme encouraged by Gaskell Dressing the boys in black and White. In this series much like most of Gaskells work, their are brief and intense flashes of violence throughout, this in combination with the anonymity of the central figures and the overall mystery of the driving themes this creates a tense and foreboding feeling when viewing the series.
unlike Michal’s, Gaskells photographs are not taken to be viewed in a certain order ‘With no set order to the images, they can form entirely new stories with each change of sequence, inviting the viewer to interpret the enigmatic events of each narrative.'(5), her images can be reconfigured to create entirely new narratives depending on the viewer’s interpretation.
“The stories and events that I choose to use as jumping-off points are simply that. They are only a part of what goes into the work, and perhaps a useful reference for viewers,” she explained. “Trying to combine fiction, fact, and my own personal mishmash of life into something new is how I make my work.”(6)
I believe although influences are different between the artists with Michal’s drawing influence from his own fantasy’s and personal perceptions, and Gaskell drawing influence from traditional and recognisable children’s literature they both make considerable efforts to insert themselves into their photographic series, while Duane’s series’ rely entirely on the viewers perceptions and interpretations in his belief that imagination is far more significant than real life’ believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see.'(7) Gaskell uses recognisable situations and stories for the viewer to identify and consider when deconstructing the intentions and narratives behind her photo series’ however both photographers utilise a sense of unidentifiability and ambiguity to covey the stories they are trying to emanate.
Both of their accomplished and recognised abilities to portray clear and unique narratives through photography relies on them building a structure and aesthetic whether that’s a wide camera lenses and slow shutter speed in Michal’s case or Gaskells intentional cropping a posing that directs the viewer to their conclusion, whether it was the photographers intended conclusion or otherwise.
1=thephotographicjournal.com. (n.d.). Duane Michals. [online] Available at: https://thephotographicjournal.com/interviews/duane-michals/.
2=Carnegie Museum of Art. (2024). Storyteller: The Photographs of Duane Michals. [online] Available at: https://carnegieart.org/exhibition/storyteller-the-photographs-of-duane-michals/ [Accessed 2 Feb. 2025].
3=Popular Photography. (2019). Interview: Duane Michals on 50 Years of Sequences and Staging Photos. [online] Available at: https://www.popphoto.com/american-photo/interview-duane-michals-50-years-sequences-and-staging-photos/.
4=BOMB Magazine. (2024). BOMB Magazine | Duane Michals. [online] Available at: https://bombmagazine.org/articles/1987/07/01/duane-michals/.
5=Zhang, J. (2014). Intriguingly Ambiguous Visual Narratives by Anna Gaskell. [online] My Modern Met. Available at: https://mymodernmet.com/anna-gaskell-turns-gravity/ [Accessed 4 Feb. 2025].
6=Artnet.com. (2023). Available at: https://www.artnet.com/artists/anna-gaskell/.
7=BrainyQuote. (2025). BrainyQuote. [online] Available at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/duane_michals_106045 [Accessed 4 Feb. 2025]
This photoshoot I focused on colour, and unique compositions that are revealed when captured from an abstract angle/approach. I achieved this by capturing photographs from particular view points – close-up shot, to more far away views. For each photo I had in mind the compositions and how I could achieve a unique, unusual angles from this. I further experimented with cropping the photos, to further make the photo unrecognisable through this very abstract angle. I wanted to achieve this effect, where only colour was visible, further defined by the lines, patterns, silhouettes and structured of outlines and shadows. To achieve this effect I chose certain areas from the original, which I though could be interesting and could achieve different focal points. This means that different details and features of the photo could be visible further creating interesting/ in-depth character.
To develop this further, I am going to focus more on the angles I use when I capture the photo, paying close attention to the the formations/ shapes and patterns, then capturing from angles in a similar way. I feel this will enhance the details further creating very gripping and engaging images, as I following the same effects.
I am going to capture more interesting angles found from unique compositions I find